Let Sleeping Doctor's Lie
by Aryea
Summary: Just a silly story about my favorite 10th Doctor and his lovely Rose and every day life in the tardis. First time doing Doctor Who, so comments would be appreciated. ;-)


Disclaimer: The Doctor and all characters do not belong to me, I am simply borrowing them.

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**CHAPTER ONE**

"Now, that isn't supposed to do that," The Doctor decided aloud, in the middle of recalibrating a Syntax module. "You're not supposed to…OW!" He snatched his hand away at the sudden zap the small box gave him. "Keep it up, and you're going in the next recycling phase."

"DOCTOR!"

He was startled by Rose's scream, but recovered quickly, leapt over the main platform of the Tardis and dashed up a set of stairs. It took him a little longer than it should have to find her room, but then the Tardis often changed where things were located.

He found her, finally, and was appalled to see her writhing on her bed and screaming his name.

"Rose!" He rushed to her, caught her shoulders, relieved it was just a nightmare and that some alien being hadn't somehow slinked its way onto the ship without his knowing. What was he saying? That could never happen without his knowing; he was The Doctor.

"DOCTOR!" she screamed again in that lovely cockney accent he had grown so very fond of. No one said his name quite like Rose Tyler did.

"Rose!" He gently shook her again. "Rose! Wake up. You're having a nightmare!"

She woke, groggy at first, then settled wide, panicked eyes upon him. "Doctor!" She threw her arms around him, forcing him to sit down on the bed or be pulled completely atop her. "Oh God. Oh God!"

He held her, alarmed at her trembling, and he realized how very rare it was to see his Rose truly frightened. "I'm here. I'm right here, Rose."

"I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you! You were in that black pit and I couldn't get to you and…"

He pulled back and captured her face in his hands, forcing her to focus on his face, his eyes. "It's over," he told her gently. "That's all done with. See? You were just having a bad dream."

Rose's hands fluttered uncontrollably as she unfastened his jacket and slid her hands inside to grope his chest, a second later her head lay against it, listening to the unique but now familiar sound of his two hearts beating. "I thought you were hurt! I couldn't get to you. I thought you would die!"

"Here now," He caressed the long silken strands of her blond hair. "If that were true I'd just regenerate. I'm a Timelord, remember?"

Rose pulled back and met his eyes, such lovely eyes, and ones she'd become accustomed to, as she had his new face and mannerisms. He was still her Doctor, he just looked different. Besides she was really starting to like this face, maybe even more than the last one.

She surprised them both by leaning in and pressing her lips to his. It shocked him, she could tell and it made her smile as his arms and hands stilled, then went stiff. She enjoyed shocking him, embarrassing him, but that wasn't what the kiss was about now. She'd needed to know, to feel his breath, his life.

The Doctor was at war with himself for only few moments, but then she pulled away before he had time to decide what he should do.

"Stay?"

He blinked. "Oh! Well…I…um…really should…um…I have a syntax I'm calibrating and…ah…" Was she asking him to stay, or to _stay_? Most of the time he enjoyed the double and sometimes triple meaning of words in the Human language, but he wasn't always very good at guessing the correct meaning.

She slid back on the mattress and patted it, before lying down again. "Just…just till I go to sleep?"

"Oh!" Relief and disappointment filled him. "Oh. I…Sure, I can do that."

He could hardly refuse such a request, and she had obviously been very upset by her dream. He glanced at the bed with some trepidation, as he tended to nap standing or sitting for the few minutes when he needed to shut down for a day, or every few days. He'd never really just lain in a bed. Well, except when he was regenerating, but he barely remembered that.

"Right." He turned his back towards the spiraling headboard, pulled his feet up and lay back. There, that wasn't so bad. It was actually quite comfortable. Not as comfortable as lying on the wool grass of Anearias, or the floating clouds of Nyrun twelve, but not too bad.

Rose slid closer and laid her head on his chest. "Thanks."

He smiled and draped his arm around her shoulder. "My pleasure. This is quite nice. The Tardis made a fine room for you."

Rose smiled. "Yeah, it's cool." She draped her hand over his chest as well and realized that they had never really been this close before, well, aside from hugging each other. This felt more intimate somehow. "I was so scared. So scared I'd lost you."

"You won't lose me," he assured and kissed the top of her head affectionately. "I'm like the preferable bad penny, always showing up…"

She rose up enough to look down at him. "You'll always be with me, yeah?"

There was desperation in her eyes, and something…something else that both delighted and disturbed the Doctor. He couldn't promise what she was asking for. He had already decided that he needed to convince her to stay at home for awhile. Their last adventure had cut too close, he'd been deathly afraid he would lose her. She was human, he knew that she would eventually die, but he hoped that wouldn't be until she was very old and grey, and certainly not while on his watch.

"Go to sleep," he urged. "I can't lounge around here all evening now can I? I'm a busy man, things to do, universes to see."

Not without me, Rose vowed, aware that he had, once again, avoided a promise. Even if he hadn't avoided it Rule One was The Doctor Lies, but she knew in her heart that he didn't lie to her, not about the important things. When he didn't want to lie, he fell back to avoidance, which would have to be enough for her; for now.

"Do you sleep?" she asked, suddenly, curious.

"When I'm tired, yes."

She folded her hands over his chest and laid her chin on them, gazing at him. "I never see you sleep. You're always up and dressed before I am."

"I don't need as much sleep as you do, Rose. I…" He paused. "I nap more than sleep, I suppose."

"Don't you like to sleep?"

"Not really. Well, I suppose I don't dislike it, but I always feel like I've missed something afterwards and that I do dislike."

She smirked, slid her hands down and laid her cheek on his chest again. Her poor Doctor, always running to or from something, always raring for the next big adventure; she loved that about him. "I like to sleep. I used to love it. I could lounge in bed for hours when I lived home…"

"Hours!" he cried aghast and shuddered.

How could anyone sleep for hours when there was so much to see and do and feel and...His whirling mind stilled suddenly as he realized that Rose was making small, slow circles on his chest. It felt…brilliant actually. He'd never felt anything quite like it before, never had anyone do anything like that to him before, but then he wondered if it was something that someone should be doing; to him. He was old, but he wasn't naive, well, not _that_ naive.

He cleared his throat.

"Hmmm…"

"You're supposed to be sleeping, Rose Tyler" he scolded. And not trying to seduce me, he added silently; despite the small thrill it gave him.

"Kay," she sighed and smiled. She adored the way he said her name.

Her voice was sleepy and he realized that whatever she was doing with her hand was soothing her, so he let her continue. It wasn't hurting him, it just…puzzled him.

"Doc..tor…"

"Sleep!"

"Stay."

"I'm right here."

"Always?"

He closed his eyes, tightly, as hoard of possibilities flashed through his mind, what was, what is, what could be. Damn it to hell! He pushed them back. He must be tired, he usually had better control over his Time Lord curse. Knowing things, all things, all the time was frustrating and dangerous. He always needed to keep a tight cap on his thoughts, lest they take him somewhere he didn't want to be, somewhere he'd already been and as yet had never seen.

"Always?" she murmured again, already half asleep now.

"Yes, Rose." He lied. Rule One, damn him. "Always."

The Doctor awoke with a start and realized that he must have dozed off in Rose's very comfortable bed. He may have to get one like it for himself, they weren't at all bad. He glanced sideways, expecting to see his friend still sleeping and was filled with dread when he saw her side of the bed empty.

"Rose?" He bolted up, then pulled out his pocket watch and gasped. He'd been asleep almost three hours! He never slept that long, it was such a waste of time!

He hopped up, grabbed his suit jacket and exited the room. "Rose!" he called as he wound through the familiar and unfamiliar parts of a corridor. "Rose!"

"Here Doctor!"

He found her on the main platform, where she had a small table set up with two chairs. He glanced at it, curious. "What's going on here?"

She smiled at him and pulled off a covered dish that revealed to plates of eggs, pancakes and sausage. "Breakfast!"

He grinned with delight, shoved his hands in his pockets and rolled on his feet. "Well, well. Aren't we full of surprises?"

She laughed then skipped over and threw her arms around him. "Good Morning."

"It seems to be so far." He gave her a quick squeeze then stepped back and smiled down at her. "You've been busy."

"Yeah, the Tardis helped. It's great how she seems to know just what you need when you need it."

The Doctor was warmed by the fact that Rose's use of a pronoun for his ship. "Yes, the old girl is pretty spectacular when she chooses." He walked over and pulled out Rose's chair with manners. "Madam."

She laughed again and slid onto it. "Why thank you, kind sir." She fully intended to repay the Doctor for his kindness last night, and that had been what prompted breakfast, but she also felt he was holding back from her again. It had felt so incredible to just lay beside him, to wake with him next to her in the bed.

She quietly hatched a plan to make things like that happen more often, as she popped a piece of bacon into her mouth.

"Rose…"


End file.
